


they aren't, they aren't

by icoeurus



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: AUs, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-07
Updated: 2015-01-07
Packaged: 2018-03-06 12:27:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3134465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icoeurus/pseuds/icoeurus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes they meet, sometimes they don’t, but they’re never together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	they aren't, they aren't

In this universe, where Ryan has a special fondness for Gavin that isn’t shared with anyone else, they almost are.

They meet in the Roosterteeth office, after Gavin’s finally approved and steps into the building that soon becomes his second home and Ryan’s straying in the kitchen. He’s still not an Achievement Hunter, not yet, but the Brit approaches him anyway, stammering and never quite meeting his eyes when he asks him to be in a video.

He agrees immediately.

~

Ryan bartends nightly at the club and occasional serves a drink to the foreign man. He watches him dance on the dance floor, kiss pretty ladies.

Gavin dies in a car accident.

End of that story.

~

He’s shy – who wouldn’t be – hesitating before speaking at all during the recording. He sneaks a glance around the room, a cramped space that could barely hold all six of them, and wonders briefly of how it would feel to work in there.

Ryan smiles at the thought.

~

They sit next to each other on an airplane on a seven-hour flight to L.A; Gavin’s working a job and Ryan’s filming his first movie.

They talk briefly about themselves, about their work and the plane lands before they figure out the probability of coin tosses. They walk together to the baggage claim, leave in separate cars.

Gavin watches the movie and can’t believe that for someone who can act so well, Ryan doesn’t understand.

Ryan sees his work in a blockbuster, explosions going off in slow-motion and bullets clipping trees. He wonders if he’ll ever be filmed by him.

~

It doesn’t happen immediately, but it might as well have.

Ryan spends more time at the couch than his actual desk, even when they aren’t recording. The lack of space prevents him of moving in permanently but they make do with a small foldout table.

He likes to believe he’s friends with all of them now, knows them well enough to pause and have a chat with either one of them before continuing on with whatever they were doing.

Except for him.

~

Ryan is the one who sits on the throne, crown on his head. Here, he is just, a fair king after his father’s death.

Here is the knight – one of Ryan’s best, yet he’s hesitant to send Gavin out to the battlefield. War rages outside the four walls of the kingdom and he’s kept the man inside them under the excuse of his own personal security.

Gavin argues, harder than anyone should with royalty and Ryan gives in, sends him out with his barrack and catches the wink Gavin throws over his shoulder before the gates close.

A corpse comes back.

Ryan keeps his sword on the mantel in his room, three words forever stuck on the tip of his tongue.

~

Gavin’s an odd man.

Ryan sees how he plays, repeats his questions in an attempt to understand him. His mind seems to run on a constant stream of hypotheticals and words that may or may not exist and occasionally, somehow manages to mix the two together.

And they jab at each other, teases of noses and intelligence and Ryan invites them all to a dinner that doesn’t happen.

(No matter how much he wants it to.)

~

He’s a pilot and Ryan’s three days short of turning five.

A bomb drops.

They don’t meet in this one.

~

Gavin thinks Ryan hates him.

The man’s amiable enough, but holds a fearful air around him and Gavin’s not sure to be attracted or terrified.

He’s made subtle moves in becoming friends with Ryan, but he’s been met with nothing but refusal and Gavin’s hope depletes, but doesn’t disappear.

~

Gavin is a freshman barista at a coffee shop and Ryan is a senior in college. Sometimes they chat while Gavin prepares his coffee, but he always leaves a tip in the jar.

Ryan doesn’t consider Gavin his friend and the latter is fully aware of this, even though his feelings go far beyond friendship.

Ryan graduates and moves across the country.

~

He makes progress.

They don’t eat lunch together, don’t hang out outside of work – hell, Gavin doesn’t even know his  _phone number_.

But Gavin catches himself looking over his shoulder and grinning at the way Ryan sticks his tongue out sometimes when he’s concentrating. Other times he catches Ryan looking at him.

They look away pretty quickly after that.

~

They go to the same high school, but not both of them are students.

Gavin’s in Ryan’s math class and does fairly well. Doesn’t cause much trouble, doesn’t do much of anything, really.

His mother finds a noose around his neck.

Ryan wonders if he could’ve done something.

~

Gavin kicks himself for the fluttering in his stomach when he looks at him, for how his heartbeat increases whenever he looks at the other man.

_Married._

He repeats this to himself, just in case he gets too over his head.

Like he’d forget.

~

Ryan sits in front of the console, so  _painfully_  aware of the situation they’re in.

Something went wrong. His crew rush around, in desperate attempts to save the ship, to save  _themselves._

He doesn’t know how to tell them it’s pointless, that they’re simply wasting oxygen and nothing’s going to stop them from suffocating in space.

Gavin stops running towards the engine room and sharply turns into the cockpit. The captain sits in his chair, shoulders sagged, head resting on his arms. He asks if they’re going to die.

Ryan says yes.

~

Ryan has it easier. He doesn’t see Gavin like that.

He still kisses his wife before driving to work, goes along with the day without any significant thought of the other man and goes straight back home to his family.

No hesitation.

~

Gavin plays the violin in an orchestra.

Ryan’s simply in the audience.

~

Gavin knows it’s wrong, he sees the silver band around Ryan’s finger all the time - but sometimes he wonders what it’d be like if he had the matching one.

~

Ryan accidentally takes his laundry.

Gavin takes his out of spite.

They leave childish notes in the laundry room before they finally exchange clothes.

But Gavin is in a happy relationship and so is Ryan. It doesn’t go any farther than friendship.

~

Gavin’s so far down the rabbit hole and he still doesn’t know when he’ll hit rock bottom.

His breath catches, face flushes and he can’t help the smiles that appear when the other man laughs.

~

Ryan picks Gavin up from a bar.

Gavin wakes up to an empty bed and a cold breakfast.

~

Ryan doesn’t notice.

~

He’s a blacksmith and he smirks when Gavin comes with his dented dagger.

They make idle chitchat while Ryan fixes it and Gavin mentions the beast his group is hunting the day after.

Ryan wishes him luck.

Gavin’s the only one to come back, bearing a head that resembles a bull and a broken expression in his eyes.

He’s never the same.

~

Gavin gets introduced to Meg and his world shifts into something else entirely.

~

Ryan loves his occupation. The pay is good and the jobs are always on his terms.

So when he places a bullet in a foreign man, all he can think about is the triple-digit cheque he’s receiving.

~

Gavin gets together with Meg and it’s one of the best decisions in his life.

Ryan’s happy for them.

~

They’ve spoken about it, but it’s never at the right time. They’re always too busy or one of them is in a relationship.

They stop trying.

~

Sometimes, Gavin thinks about the ‘what if’.

What if Ryan hadn’t been married - would they have been together?

What if he never met Meg and never got over his feelings?

What if, what if.

Meg stirs in her sleep and he kisses her head out of response. He stops thinking about it and goes to sleep, lacing his ringed hand with hers.

Maybe they could’ve been.


End file.
